That was the story in high school football in Week 3 around the First Coast, where the little schools served up notice that enrollment totals are nothing.

The body of work.

Class 3A Trinity Christian 13, Class 8A Sandalwood 7.

Class 4A Yulee 42, Class 7A South Lake 14.

Class 1A Baldwin 47, Class 6A Englewood 6.

Let’s start with the biggest one, the Conquerors and Saints, a massive size discrepancy between Trinity and Sandalwood. The other numbers to focus on here: Trinity 425, Sandalwood 3,090.

That’s the enrollment figures for both programs from the Florida High School Athletic Association’s student population report last fall. Trinity beat a school that is 7.2 times its size.

I saw Trinity in its second game of the season, at home against St. Augustine, one of the best Class 6A programs in the state. The Conquerors had major issues on both sides of the ball; they couldn’t convert the big fourth down when they needed to, and their pass coverage on short and intermediate routes was scorched. Those blown assignments were why Trinity lost.

One of the first things that St. Augustine coach Joey Wiles said, actually, the first words out of his mouth were: “That is a physical, physical football team. They’ve got some guys up front … that are just physical.”

So, Trinity gets an off week on Sept. 7, looks at tape of the St. Augustine game, fixes its coverage issues and goes to Sandalwood in what should’ve amounted to a tuneup game for the Saints before their District 1-8A showdown with Fletcher in Week 4.

It didn’t quite work out that way.

The Conquerors kept the Saints out of the end for more than three quarters and then got the winning points on a touchdown run by sophomore Jeffrey Holland. The Trinity defense that couldn’t get a stop two weeks ago against St. Augustine stuffed Sandalwood three times in the final six minutes. This is the same Sandalwood with a Duke commit at quarterback, an Alabama commit at defensive end, an FIU guy on the offensive line and a Vanderbilt pledge playing safety.

Trinity’s win had some company.

Behind recurring highlight reel Derrick Henry, the great equalizer, Yulee (enrollment 1,023) hammered South Lake (1,751). Coach Bobby Ramsay said it was the first time that the Hornets won a game two hours away from campus.

Baldwin (644) also delivered a swift beating to Englewood (1,784). Obviously, the Rams aren’t an elite program, but they do have athletes, and nearly a three-to-one student body margin over the Indians.

Big schools, consider yourselves warned.

Stats watch

Rushing top 10 leaders

Player, School Att. Yds. TD Avg.

Henry, Yulee 87 881 11 10.1

Smith, Fletcher 59 499 8 8.5

Alford, Glynn 74 493 7 6.7

Zanders, Raines 49 431 2 8.8

Mixson, Forrest 60 421 3 7

Henderson, Episcopal 36 404 6 11.2

Gardner, Raines 34 394 5 11.6

Perry, Mandarin 43 369 4 8.5

Montgomery, At. Coast 45 348 3 7.5

Taylor, Christ’s Ch. 27 330 4 12.2

Passing top 10 leaders

Player, School Comp. Att. Yds. TD Int.

Mims, St. Augustine 43 65 657 8 2

Duch, Christ’s Ch. 19 27 549 8 1

Ramsey, Camden 25 40 525 11 0

Blazejowkski, Bartram 29 52 515 8 2

Holleman, Beacon 30 68 505 3 1

Riles, Lee 37 80 500 5 4

Johnson, First Coast 26 39 467 6 4

Scarnecchia, Flem. Isl 26 40 433 4 2

Burnett, Mandarin 39 70 414 2 2

Williams, Ribault 28 67 388 2 1

Receiving top 10 leaders

Player, School Rec. Yds. TD Avg.

Nichols, Christ’s Ch. 7 290 3 41.4

Mitchell, St. Augustine 14 257 3 18.4

Bright, First Coast 12 212 3 17.4

Hamilton, Beacon 11 210 2 19.1

Motes, Fleming Isl. 8 199 1 24.9

Smith, Eag. View 12 183 3 15.3

Martin, First Coast 11 181 3 16.5

G. Davis, Bartram 9 171 1 19

Lockhart, Camden 4 171 4 42.8

Hatten, Arlington CD 11 170 2 15.4

Derrick Henry Watch

After a 41-carry, 303-yard, five-touchdown night against South Lake, Henry is knocking on the door of Emmitt Smith’s No. 2 spot on the state rushing list. Henry now has 8,753 career yards, and needs just 52 yards to supplant Smith (8,804 from 1983-86 at Pensacola Escambia). More on the asterisks of the rushing record below.

Henry also tied former Blanche Ely running back Tyrone Moss (2000-02) with his 37th consecutive 100-yard rushing game, the state record.

With some help from the Orlando Sentinel’s Buddy Collings and national high school sports records guru, Doug Huff, Henry is just three 100-yard rushing games away from breaking the national record.

Current Pittsburgh freshman Rushel Shell (2008-11 at Aliquippa, Pa.) holds the national mark at 39 straight 100-yard games. Billy Sims (1972-75 at Hooks, Texas) is next at 38.

Should Henry stay on his ridiculous rushing pace (293.7 ypg) he’ll break the national 100-yard game streak against Fernandina Beach on Oct. 5.

Some clarification on Henry’s 100-yard streak

In Week 1, Henry rushed for 336 yards against Gainesville in a 51-28 loss. We reported it as Henry’s 34th consecutive 100-yard game, which snapped the area record for consecutive 100-yard games. University Christian’s Willie McClendon (1983-86) had 33 straight 100-yarders.

It was actually Henry’s 35th straight game, as I mentioned in my weekly blog post the night prior to the Gainesville game, but only 34 would be officially recognized by the National Federation of High Schools, per its rulebook, which states: “3. For the purpose of recognizing a season mark in the National High School Sports Record Book, “season” is defined as all regular-season contests within state association limits, plus all contests in the state association-sponsored playoffs up to and including the state championship contest.”

Sounds relatively black and white.

Yulee played a postseason bowl game in 2009 against Providence, which technically falls outside the criteria that the NFHS designates as to what it considers grounds for recognizing an official mark. The FHSAA calendar clearly states that the end of the regular season is the Saturday of the 11th week, which would be Nov. 10 this year. It is neither a regular season game, nor a playoff game.

I emailed the NFHS, which then got in touch with the FHSAA which said that bowl games do, in fact, count, even though the wording seems to exclude them.

So, all of Henry’s games will officially count in his pursuit of national glory. The state’s all-time leading rusher, Belle Glade Glades Day’s Kelvin Taylor, however, may have to settle for being No. 2 when all is said and done on a national level.

Taylor currently has 10,256 career yards, which puts him first by a wide margin over Emmitt Smith (No. 2) and Henry (No. 3). But since the NFHS only recognizes stats compiled from ninth through 12th grades, Taylor won’t get credit in the national books for his 1,584 yards as an eigth grader. His four-year total is 8,672, which is 82 yards behind Henry.

Friday five-pack

Bolles (3-0) at Fleming Island (3-0): Bulldogs have faced a much more difficult schedule than the Golden Eagles, but that hardly matters. This is going to be a defensive battle, and I’d be surprised if either team scored more than 24 in this game.

Fletcher (3-0) at Sandalwood (2-1): The Saints’ loss last week took a little sparkle off of this one, but it’s still a district battle. I keep saying it, but I think Fletcher is the most complete team in the area. The Saints are going to have to do a better job of keeping quarterback Parker Boehme protected than they did last week against a very good Trinity front.

Raines (3-0) at White (3-0): An excellent Gateway Conference battle with nothing at stake but pride. The Vikings have a very nice 1-2 punch in quarterback Marvin Zanders and junior back Alex Gardner. I’d be surprised if Gardner isn’t one of the top three backs in the area next year. The Commanders survived a scrappy Wolfson last week, 33-30, but that's not of too much importance now. Expect a physical, smashmouth, bang-between-the-tackles, kind of ground war here.

Orange Park (1-1) at Ridgeview (3-0): A battle of Clay County that could really go either way. I’m totally split on this game. It’s the start of three very tough games in a row for the Panthers – OP, Bishop Kenny and Columbia.

Mandarin (2-1) at Flagler Palm Coast (2-1): The Mustangs hung with Raines last week and gave the upset a go in the fourth quarter. This is a big game for Mandarin; a win is going to put it with a leg up in district play over the Fletcher-Sandalwood loser. Coach Robert Dean said last week that this game was huge for the program, which has just one district win since the 2009 season.

High school football season is finally here, and with it, my weekly blog. I’ll publish it Thursday’s throughout the season, throw in stat leaders on the First Coast, games of the week, and other interesting bits of football information that don’t make it in the printed product.